Medical devices that deliver medication into the body of an individual via pumping are known and commonly used in the medical industry. Typically, the medication that is delivered from such medical devices depends on the medical condition that is sought to be treated.
For some treatments, such as for example, cancer treatments, it is common for the patients to go to a medical facility to be administered into their body a high volume of a medication. Such a process typically involves a health care provider preparing an infusion set for connection to an external pumping device, inserting a cannula or hollow needle of the infusion set into the patient, and monitoring the progress of the infusion. However, this process is expensive due to the use of a medical facility and the health care provider's time, and can be time consuming in terms of the patient having to travel to and from the medical facility.
Single use, drug delivery devices are known, such as injection pens and disposable infusion devices. However, in the case of injection pens, the use of such pens to administer medication into the patient, which may take more than a few seconds, can be extremely difficult to keep the pen steady especially for a self-medicating patient. Comfort and safety of the patient would thus be an issue when administering higher volumes of medication (e.g., 5 ml or greater). With known disposable infusion device, the patient/user typically has to load a cartridge or in some cases connect an infusion set which makes introducing contaminates into the drug delivery process a potential issue.
Therefore, there is a need in the medical industry to have the flexibility to have the patients pump such liquid drugs in the privacy of their home. Accordingly, there is a further need to develop devices that will administer therapeutic drugs that are easy, convenient and safe to use in the home environment. In addition, there is a need to develop a device that can deliver a range of drugs of different viscosities and volumes to the user/patient.